Date:    Fri, 27 Feb 1998 16:30:26 +0000
<br>From:    Peter McGraw  pmcgraw[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]LINFIELD.EDU 
<br>Subject: Re: March hare madness
<br>
<br>Remarkable!  To think I never realized until now that Erasmus was so
<br>fluent in English!
<br>
<br>Peter
<br>
<br>On Thu, 26 Feb 1998 20:37:10 EST Bapopik  Bapopik[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM  wrote:
<br>
<br> MARCH HARE
<br> 
<br>       It's almost March.  "March Madness" was posted a year ago.  "Mad
<br>  as a March hare" is not in Christine Ammer's new book of idioms, and
<br>  it's poorly explained in Bartlett's, where John Skelton and John
<br>  Heywood are both cited. This item was also in my files from the
<br>  Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Questions and Answers, 24 March 1929:
<br> 
<br>       "Mad as a March hare."
<br>       Will you kindly inform me how the expression, "Mad as a March
<br>  hare," originated and where it is found?
<br>       A. L. H.      Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable says the
<br>  saying grew out of the fact that hares are usually shy and wild in
<br>  March, which is their mating season.  Nuggets of Wisdom quotes the
<br>  foregoing and adds:  "This explanation is discounted by a statement by
<br>  Erasmus in 1542.  After using the expression, 'Mad as a March hare,'
<br>  Erasmus says, 'Hares are wilder in marshes from the absence of hedges
<br>  and cover.'  This indicates that in the days of Erasmus the saying was
<br>  'mad as a marsh hare.'  It is not difficult to see that 'marsh' might
<br>  have been corrupted into 'March' after the original meaning of the
<br>  word was lost sight of."  Our correspondent may have in mind the March
<br>  hare of "Alice in Wonderland."
<br>
<br>----------------------
<br>Peter A. McGraw
<br>Linfield College
<br>McMinnville, Oregon
<br>pmcgraw[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]linfield.edu
<br>